Valve assemblies are used within automotive vehicles and other apparatuses to control, manage and/or direct the flow of air, gas, and other material between various respective portions of these vehicles or apparatuses and/or between various portions of these vehicles or apparatuses and the environment or area in which these respective vehicles and apparatuses reside.
One type of valve assembly, known as a pressure relief valve assembly or an "air extractor", is typically connected, by way of one or more ducts, conduits, and/or vents, to the passenger compartment of a vehicle. The valve assembly operatively allows air to be selectively expelled, discharged or extracted from the vehicle passenger compartment, while substantially preventing air, gas, fumes, and/or other undesirable materials from entering into the passenger compartment. Particularly, these pressure relief valve assemblies are effective to substantially eliminate pressure differentials which exist or may arise between the passenger compartment and the environment outside of the vehicle. Such pressure differentials arise, for example and without limitation, when the vehicle doors are opened or closed, when the vehicle is traveling at relatively high speeds, and/or when the vehicle climate control systems are activated. By eliminating and/or substantially reducing these pressure differentials, these pressure relief valve assemblies improve the performance of climate control systems, reduce door-closing efforts, minimize window frame deflection, and reduce noise within the passenger compartment of the vehicle.
Pressure relief valve assemblies typically include a generally rectangular housing and a plurality of "flaps" or movable members, which are pivotally disposed within the housing and which rest against and/or operatively cover several apertures which are integrally formed within the housing. These flaps or movable members are typically and conventionally mounted along an axis which is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the housing and which is adapted to be substantially parallel to the ground or the floor of the vehicle, when the valve assembly is properly installed within a vehicle. In this manner, the weight of the flaps (i.e., the gravitational force on the flaps) allows the flaps to open only when air is being expelled from the passenger compartment, and causes the flaps to close by the gravitational force of their own weight, when air and/or air-borne material is not being expelled from the passenger compartment, thereby substantially preventing air, gas, fumes, and/or other materials from entering the passenger compartment from the exterior of the vehicle through the valve assembly.
Pressure relief valve assemblies are typically mounted in the rear portion of the vehicle (e.g., as far away from the occupants of the passenger compartment as possible), in order to minimize the amount of noise which is introduced and/or communicated into the passenger compartment due to and/or arising from the operation of these valve assemblies. These types of valve assemblies are also desirably mounted in an area of the vehicle where they are substantially not visible to the occupants of the passenger compartment, and where the ingress of carbon monoxide or exhaust fumes is relatively unlikely. Due to these mounting constraints and the relatively limited amount of available mounting space on and/or within most vehicles, it is desirable to employ valve assemblies which may be operatively mounted in a variety of positions and orientations, thereby maximizing the areas or portions of the vehicle in which the assemblies may be operatively mounted, and further providing a "standard" or "universal" valve assembly which may be used in a wide variety of vehicles, thereby minimizing vehicle production costs.
While the previously described valve assemblies are relatively effective to operatively and communicatively expel air from the passenger compartment, they suffer from some drawbacks due to their relatively limited ability and/or inability to be operatively mounted in multiple orientations and/or positions. Particularly, because these prior valve assemblies rely upon gravitational forces to "automatically" close, and since the flaps of these prior valve assemblies are arranged along an axis which is substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the housing, these prior valve assemblies cannot be installed in a variety of orientations with respect to the ground or the floor of the vehicle.
That is, when "vertically" installed (e.g., when the longitudinal axis of symmetry of the housing is substantially perpendicular to the ground or the floor of the vehicle), the flaps do not properly and automatically close. As such, once these flaps pivot or move to an open position, they remain substantially open, thereby undesirably allowing air, gas, fumes and/or other materials to undesirably enter the passenger compartment. Moreover, these prior valve assemblies are typically mountable to the vehicle body either from only the "outside" of the vehicle body or from only the "inside" of the vehicle body, thereby reducing the utility of theses prior valve assemblies, further limiting the areas within which these valve assemblies may be mounted, and preventing these prior valve assemblies from use within a wide variety of vehicles.
There is therefore a need for a new and improved pressure relief valve assembly for use in a vehicle and which allows air to be selectively expelled from the vehicle passenger compartment, while substantially preventing air, gas, fumes and/or other undesirable materials from flowing into the vehicle passenger compartment; which may be operatively mounted to the vehicle body in multiple orientations with respect to the ground or to the floor of the vehicle; and which may be mounted to the vehicle body from either the inside of the vehicle body or from the outside of the vehicle body, thereby allowing use in a wide variety of vehicles.